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Steve Fretzin 0:00
So you want to always go after low hanging fruit, that's the most important thing. So you're not going to say, you know, whatever I want to start cold calling. If you don't have to cold call, don't do it. If you have a big network of people and clients, it should always be leveraged first. Okay, if you have a lot of strategic partners, you just haven't spent time with them. That might be the direction you want to go, the focus is going to be what's the least amount of effort to get the best possible return.
Narrator 0:31
You're listening to be that lawyer, life changing strategies and resources for drilling a successful law practice. Each episode, your host, author and lawyer coach Steve Fretzin, will take a deeper dive, helping you grow your law practice in less time with greater results. Now, here's your host, Steve Fretzin!
Steve Fretzin 0:53
Well, hello, everyone, and welcome to be that lawyer. My name is Steve fretts. In a little different topic for today, I did a presentation called let's go solo, which includes tips and ideas for running and succeeding with your own law practice. And today, I'm just going to share with you that webinar that I did, and hopefully you'll get some great takeaways from it, enjoy. So the program for today is how to effectively start and grow a solo law practice. This is really for people that are either as a solo currently and are looking for some additional tips and ideas. It can also be for someone that is currently working at another firm, and just like to have the option, you know, it may be something that you decide to do on your own and may be something you're forced to do based on the current situation with the Coronavirus, and just reading an article about big law just the other day cutting comp significantly, especially to the people that are making over 100,000, which is probably all the attorneys. So as far as what we're going to cover today, and again, if you guys would mind just just muting yourselves out. And then again, if there's something you want to add, just unmute and come back, and that'll keep the background noise to a to a minimum. Okay, as far as my background, I've been doing this a long time actually, I got into legal when the recession hit in 2008 is really when I dove into it with both feet. And I've been working nonstop with attorneys around the country and even internationally since focusing on helping them with their business development and marketing branding efforts. primarily focused on business development, networking, LinkedIn, planning, execution, follow through and just trying to drive the book. If you asked me to code a website, I'm probably gonna look at your funny. So I'm not that type of marketing guy. As far as my writing background, I have actually written three books. They're all available on Amazon sales. Free selling was my first book, which really talks about how much I hate sales and how much I know lawyers hate sales. And so I wrote a book just for you all talking about a better way to walk a buyer through a buying process. If you guys have any questions about how this process works, or my coaching, I also see Jack's on the call. And jack may want to kick in because he's actually in my program. Currently, we've got a book called the attorneys networking Handbook, which is giving tips and ideas on best networking practices, which is obviously changing with the Coronavirus every day, we've got to look at new and different ways to network. I'll talk a little bit about that today. And then my most recent book came out about a year ago called the ambitious attorney, which is a compiling of all of my articles from the daily lobule attend from the last three years, then I've got another year of articles under my belt, I probably have to come up with a second edition just to put that out there. And you may also know me from my daily level, it's an article I write a monthly column for the daily level attend, which I believe is free this month, or me either moving forward or just this month, I'm not sure but they they've opened up everything. So if you want to get on the daily level, attend and check out what the news is, that's a great way to go. As far as what we're going to cover today, the agenda is fairly straightforward. It's all about going solo. So first of all, we've got to talk a little bit about getting our ducks in a row for people that are currently solo to improve those processes. Or if you're looking to go solo like what's involved. What does it take, I know that can be a very scary proposition. And so I want to talk through some of the some of the best practices and things you have to think about and the resources to use. identifying your sweet spot in the marketplace really important to start thinking strategically about as a solo where you fit. And you don't have a big name firm behind you anymore. For example, you know, how are you going to find your sweet spot? How are you going to plan and execute and talk a little bit about an infomercial just because now you need to say something different. You need to say something. When you talk with people on the phone when you meet with them on a zoom. Whatever the case is, you've got to have a well prepared infomercial. It can't be you know, I'm a lawyer that does real estate law. And that's not really going to cut it for something that's memorable or interesting to the people you're speaking with. Talk a little bit about growing your brand and kind of how do you get off to a great start. And that's really important. You don't want to drag out your new solo practice for six Once a year, just barely scratching to get by, you want to, you want to kick it off, and you want to immediately bring in some business and start getting some flow. And then lastly is just driving that business early on, as I mentioned, really important when you're starting your own practice. Okay, just to let you guys know, I mean, there's no way in 45 minutes, I'm going to cover every detail about what it takes to really go solo, that's a probably a five hour individual conversation. However, what I'm trying to do is just give you some ideas and tips and thoughts about kind of the most important elements, at least that I've identified as we go through this. So I'm going to give you the top five says top 10, I'm not going to do that I've just got it well, it is 10. But But I'm going to give you the top five, and then there's one point that actually has five bullets in it. So that's I think, how I got to 10. Number one is creating a contact list, you know, whether you're actually in a law firm, or you're a GC going on your own, or you're looking to leave the firm and go out on your own. I mean, your contacts are the most important thing client contacts, friends and family contacts, GCS that you know, used to go to law school with you or college with you, whatever it is, you need to have a great list of contacts, I'm going to get into more detail about that in a few minutes. Number two, I'm also going to get into some detail, but really developing a business plan and a budget. This is critical and you know, understanding what your overheads going to be and understanding you know what you need to bring in a month to cover those costs. Maybe it's looking at your home expenses, and then how much business you need to bring in or what you need to ramp up. Do you need alone? Do you not need alone? You know, what's your cash flow. And as you guys are seeing from what's going on today in the environment, cash is king. And the people that have cash and reserves are going to probably, you know, fear this weather. All right. And I think it's some statement about the American public, you know, the majority do not have any type of savings or any kind of backup, they've just spent every penny they've had, those people are going to be in a real predicament these days. So we really want to start socking money away and trying to make sure we have that available. But regardless of a business plan and a budgets really important, organize your marketing plan. We're going to talk a little bit about a marketing plan today and get into the weeds a bit about how to structure one. I'm not an MBA marketing guy who wants to put a 50 page, you know, heavy duty marketing plan in place for my clients. Traditionally, what I've been trying to do is put together a 234 page plan that's very tactical, and actionable. And that seems to resonate with lawyers much better than a big plan that's never going to get read again, it's just going to be written, it's going to be shelved. And it's sort of done. And that's no good. As far as being prepared for all the aspects of business. And this is where I may ask Jeremy to chime in as I kind of go through this, to make sure I'm not missing anything. But here are some some key points about being prepared for the different types of business. Number one is really thinking about how you want to structure the business. Is it an S corp is an S, LLC, LLP. But again, depending on the size of it, how big you're looking to grow in, do you have a partner? How are you looking to take income, I'd highly recommend going to the SBA website and looking at in addition to getting your PPP or your or your disaster relief money, if you're eligible to check out what the definitions of these are in more detail and really think about what is best for you and what you're based on what you're looking to do in the future. Okay, insurance, professional liability, data breach, just the different types of insurance that you need to make sure you're covered through checking out different vendors for that. staffing, you might say, Look, my practice is going to start off with is you know nothing and I don't need staff, I might be that you want to consider making a list of all the things that that you are really, really good at doing. And the things that you're really not good at doing that you're going to need that revolve around marketing that could revolve around operations that revolve around bookkeeping, I just would really recommend that if there's things that you don't like doing that are very time intensive, that you you try to figure out who's going to do it for you and try to look at talking to some people about getting some help. And again, if you don't need to bring in w two's employees right away, don't do it. If you've got enough business, you bring in a $500,000 book away from your firm, and you're going to be you know, building off of that as a solo. Yeah, you might need to bring an associate with you might need to bring a paralegal or assistant with you, that's fine. But again, if you're starting from from scratch or from very little, you're definitely going to want to think about either no staff or maybe some virtual staff to start. Okay, actually, when I get through these bullet points, Jeremy, I'll pick on you to kind of touch on maybe take a couple minutes on these client intake. This is another thing to think about, you know, your website might be up or you've got people calling you or you just you know, you've got a good reputation and people are calling in. How are those calls being handled, you know, in the past, they've all been handled by you know, other people now you might have to handle them or if you have a new assistant, then they may have to handle that intake. You know, are you doing a virtual call center, I know a Mater law centers, which is where I'm housed in Chicago now offers, you know, this virtual call center. So you can have a professional, you know, answering your phone and, you know, taking in the information and then and then sending it off to you or making sure that you're, you know, introduced properly. And so, you know, how are you taking in the calls? How are you managing those calls? And then how are you you know, closing the deals, and then building loyalty that might be a process you want to consider. And then marketing really thinking about, you know, do you even need a logo? Is your name enough? Or do you want to come up with some, you know, name for your organization, and some attorneys want to have a name and maybe it, you know, resemble something that you would find in, in a website search? Like, you know, in a specific, you know, URL, maybe your logo, website, social media, what is your plan, tell you to do, okay, and then I've got six and then technology, database management CRM, CRM stands for client relationship management tool, database management would be like a practice Panther, smoke ball, Clio, maybe, you know, figuring out what email platform billing platform. So I'm gonna take Jeremy take, if you just if you would maybe just two minutes to just kind of cover what you think are some of the key things because Jeremy, you went solo? What about six months ago? A year ago? That's right, see six months, about six months ago, do you want to just take, again, just a few minutes to just touch on some of the things that you found going solo that were really important for you?
Jeremy Weisz 11:25
Well, I think the first thing on your list is very important, the contacts list, and I use an app called contact plus, which searches the web and looks for updates to my contacts information. So someone changes jobs, and their email is no longer valid, I'll find that out right away automatically. So I think it's useful to use some of those tools. And, you know, point to, I created a spreadsheet that sort of modeled 12 months of expenses and income and allowed me to predict where my breakeven point might be. And that was helpful for me, in the first month or two, because it was around the holiday season, I had a Roland summer, but I kind of was planning that would happen. And so it was it was gave me some comfort, to be able to look at that and say this is anticipated. And sure enough, it came right back in January. And then as far as point four, and all the bullet points underneath, you know, I don't have any partners. So I'm a true solo. And it was really easy to pick the business entity, it was a five minute conversation with my accountant. You know, we decided I was going to be an LLC, and the only question is whether I was going to be taxed as an escort or not. And so, you know, I would say talk to your accountant. And it shouldn't be, you know, a five minute discussion to get through point one. And you can, you know, you can have your LLC filed and your tax ID number in like six hours or something like that in Illinois. So that happens quick. You know, as far as insurance goes, everybody knows me professional liability insurance. But one of the things that I fail to appreciate is how punitive, inexpensive data breaches can be. And the insurance policies that most attorneys get now might have like a $50,000 data breach, you know, endorsement on it, I jack that up to a million. Because if you really look at what you have to do, if there's a data breach in terms of notification of all your clients, and PR and all that stuff, it was clear to me that I wanted to have more, you know, there are a lot of virtual tools that are available now. Fiverr, Upwork, great places that websites may have logos created inexpensively. And then you know, I do really think the last point is important about the technology because what I did was sketched out sort of a workflow from people come to my website, and they put their information in where does it go? Well, it goes into a CRM that I have connected to it. And you know that CRM is something I can use to track my leads, but also electronically have engagement letters signed and you know, when those get signed, I can put the data over to I use Clio. So you know, if somebody puts their information into my website, their name, their address, the phone number, I should never have to type it again. It kind of puts its way along which is good because when you're a muscle like me doing repetitive tasks or administrative tasks or killer, I'm really trying to you know, be billable as much as I can. So I think it's a it's a good list here, Steve. Great, great.
Steve Fretzin 14:46
Thank you, Jeremy. I really appreciate it. I know everyone else does too. You know, these are really critical things to consider and, you know, it's always good to have help whether it's a CPA myself, Jeremy, people like that, that have, you know, been there done that and can Advice. So moving on to the next point is it really just brushing up on business development, marketing, social media best practices, the reality is, if you're going out on your own, you may never have wanted to be in sales, you may never have wanted to be in marketing, guess what, you know, unless you have a huge, you know, deep pockets, you know, to pay someone to basically market the junk out of you, you know, you're going to need to get out there and do some business development, you're going to need to do networking, this is going to be sitting on your heels kind of thing. And so I don't care if it's hiring me reading books, finding a good mentor, whatever the case might be, you know, anything and everything that you can do to make sure that you're, you know, getting educated on this stuff is going to be really, really critical. Okay. Moving right along important things to think about is what's your sweet spot in the marketplace, looking at your current practice the things that you do, and as you can see from the graphic, you know, what's the customer's interests and what's your expertise, and that's really where the sweet spot looks, were lands. And one way to start considering this. And if you're not a marketing person, you may not have heard this before, if you have been through any kind of marketing training before, you're going to know this immediately. It's called a SWOT analysis. And it can happen in 15 minutes, it doesn't need to take hours to do. But essentially, what you're going to do is you're going to evaluate your own strengths, your depth of network, your, your experience level within not only a segment of the law, but maybe a segment within a segment. So like for example, Bob Clifford is a personal injury attorney. But what else is pop Bob Clifford, known for? Right? He's known for aviation. Okay, so you know, the strength could be you know, not only your expertise, but maybe within a certain segment, company type or industry type. Okay? What are your weaknesses, I, you know, I hate people, or I'm afraid of people, or I have no sales experience or whatever, write down these strengths, write down these weaknesses, I think it's important for you to, to look at those because it could be something that could be leveraged. Or it could be something that's improved if your weakness is time management. Well, here's the good news. Time management is a learned skill. I'm not saying it's easy to learn, I'm just saying it's a learned skill. And when you have it, it makes a world of difference. So you can improve certain things. Or you might consider that if you have a weakness that you may want to stay away from that situation. I'll give you a quick example, if you're terrified of networking in large groups, which everyone is right now, but you know, go back six months, you know, there are certain people that that thrive in large group environments and other people that despise or terrified of them, well, maybe we identify through your SWOT that you're terrified of large groups, well, we can either fix that, or we just determined maybe you should stay away from large groups, maybe small group networking, or individual networking is going to work much better for you. Okay, so good thing to just write down on paper strengths and weaknesses. And then you've got opportunities. And again, what are the opportunities in the marketplace? Okay, the opportunities today may look very different than three months ago, because of what we're all dealing with. So in litigation, there's new opportunities in labor and employment, there's new opportunities, right in healthcare. But on the other side, it might be that there's some threats, and the threats might be, our entire industry is shut down, or there's no one doing deals, right. So bankruptcy guys might be going nuts, where transactional real estate guys, commercial real estate guys might be going Holy mackerel, and looking at other opportunities or other areas that they can focus on, or people that they can refer to maybe get a referral fee to try to figure out how to make ends meet. Okay, so this is just a quick 15 minute drill that you can go through to try to identify where your sweet spot is a couple of the thoughts on the subject, research your competition, if you've got three or four direct competitors that you know, are really, really strong. What are they doing? What are they posting on LinkedIn? What are they writing about? What are they? Are they doing video? Are they doing a podcast? What's your competition doing? It might be something for you to jump into as well. Or maybe look at and say, Well, I don't want to do that everybody's doing that I'm going to do something different. If you have them, speak with your past and existing clients and ask them, you know, what do you do best? Okay, maybe your client or your friend or someone that knows you really well will be honest with you and tell you where your strengths and weaknesses are. And maybe if they tell you if you hear some type of consistent message, that might be something that you want to put on the front of your website, maybe that's something you want to include in your infomercial, right? If maybe it's a differentiator for you that that you had never even thought of before. Okay? And again, if there's an opportunity to do what you do best, then do it. If the timing isn't right for that, then look at what you do second best, or look at what else you could be doing to keep busy and make money. Okay and help other people. Another thing I want to focus on and share with you all is how to Write a simple gameplan or a little bit of a marketing plan. And this could be looked at as your GPS and the differences. If I was to just tell you, oh, you know, you're a labor employment, you should go after, you know, HR directors, here's a, here's a compass, you know, go north, right, that's not really going to give you enough information to be successful with with that, again, I think one of the reasons that, that sometimes rainmakers struggle with coaching and teaching people business development is because they just went out and did it their own way. It wasn't a proven or predictable process, there was no plan around it, they just knew that if they kept golfing, they were going to get business, or if they kept wining and dining people, they get business or if they, you know, schmooze the right way. And for most of us, you know, humans, and things are very different today, we've got a really take a very specific analytical approach to how we're going to get business in the form of a plan, and processes to follow. So I may not be able to give you all the processes today, but I definitely want to help you begin to write a plan for how you're going to market and prospect yourself. Okay. So the first thing you want to think about is what's your objective, and if you already have a plan, you might consider rewriting it, because the world has just changed and, and your objective in January or December might be very different than what your objective is now. And the objective is essentially going to be how many new clients that you need to get, it could be what type of revenue you're looking for, it could be profitability, it could be that you need to identify, you know, three new strategic partners, based on where you are, you know, you want to consider what you're looking to do. And if your budget is that you need to make 100,000 to survive, well, then, you know, set your goal at 150. And try to have 50 grand in the bank, as well as pay your bills. Okay, once you have an objective written, we want to start thinking strategically about how we're going to achieve that objective. And that's in the form of strategies, strategies are the main focus points of how you're going to spend your time to accomplish that objective. Now, that has been limited down. As you can see, my list includes a bunch of things that are have changed. I mean, networking has changed. Now, do you have to stop networking? Because you can't get face to face with people? The answer is absolutely not. You're not getting in front of a group of people at a at a bar. But you are networking one on one, via zoom via phone call, to continue to develop strategic partners to continue to develop referral sources, things like that. So you want to always go after low hanging fruit, that's the most important thing. So you're not going to say, you know, whatever, I want to start cold calling if you don't have to cold call, don't do it. If you have a big network of people and clients, it should always be leveraged first. Okay, if you have a lot of strategic partners, you just haven't spent time with them. That might be the direction you want to go. The focus is going to be what's the least amount of effort to get the best possible return. So you want to develop know, somewhere between two and four of these types of strategies. And again, right now a lot of people are doing, speaking and writing, writing, in particular, online lead generation, a lot of people are investing in SEO and pay per click SEO is search engine optimization. Again, how do I get my website to the top of the search results? for specific legal, you know, matters? networking, I'm pushing everyone to go on LinkedIn and focus on networking on LinkedIn. And of course, leveraging existing connections, clients, etc. So if you're writing a strategy, it might sound like this leverage existing database to obtain new client introductions, and new strategic partner introductions. So again, one strategy, the lowest hanging fruit is leverage clients or leverage people, you know, well to make introductions for you. And you might say, well, Steve, the timing isn't great. Nobody wants to do that right now. I would disagree, I would say now is absolutely the time you need to get introduced people are have more time than ever GCS May, you know may have more time and ability to to speak with you. Business owners may have more time, you know, strategic partners, bankers, accountants, other lawyers, okay, whatever you need to identify that. And then once you have, let's say, two or three strategies, then you want to develop tactics. And this is where we're getting into the meat and potatoes of how this is going to actually happen. Because if I tell you, let's say I say, hey, jack, you know, you've got a big network of people, you know, go after that. You'd be like, okay, yeah, I mean, that makes sense. Go after them. But Steve, what do I say? What do I do? How do I reach out to them? What questions should I be asking? How do I follow through? Well, that's all tactics. That's all of the actionable things that you need to do. So think about writing your tactics a little bit like you're telling a story. Every good story has a beginning, a middle and an end and the opportunity for You tend to write some planning steps to think about what needs to happen in the execution. And then what has to happen on the follow through. Those are all important elements of writing a good plan. What happens if you leave out one of those three steps? Think about the last time you spent three days at a conference. And you plan for it, you execute on it, you've got this great stack of business cards sitting on your desk, and they sit for a week, and then they sit for two, and then they sit for three, and then eventually, you sweep them off into the garbage. Yeah, you might have learned something at that conference. But from a networking perspective, it was an absolute disaster. Because you didn't follow through, you missed the end of the story. So we want to make sure as we're writing tactics, that includes the beginning, the middle and the end, so that you're not missing something, that's going to be really, really important. And a point I make here at the bottom of the slide is that you really want to make sure you set activity goals that have specific numbers, and deadlines. And so a lot of plans are vague. And we want to get into the weeds and really get specific. And we want to make sure we include not only what our goals are, how many, how many emails Am I going to send out a week. But if I have to write a script, when is that script going to get written by and am I going to schedule that in my calendar. And again, these are little things that most people don't think about. But it's really important that if you're going to follow direction that you give yourself direction that you can sort of check things off as you go. And then you'll feel really good about accomplishing it, and you'll actually be moving moving the ball forward. Okay, so to give you an example of what that sounds like, here's a little bit of a sample plan. Again, this would be a strategy and some tactics, but I've kept it down to two less, what I'll do is at the end of this presentation, I'm going to send you two things, I'm going to send you a larger vision of this plan that you can work off of that's going to look better than what I'm showing you up on the screen. And then the second thing I'll share with you is a survey just to get some feedback on the presentation and and to kind of let me know what I can improve on. But I'll send you those two at the end of this, you know, after we're done here today. So a couple thoughts here on what a plan looks like. This is a strategy leverages my existing database, family and friends could be clients whenever you want to add to obtain quality introductions, okay. So again, you've got a friend, that friend is a lawyer, the friend has 20 3040 clients that don't do litigation, he doesn't do litigation, but they may need litigation he introduces introduces you in to a few of those CEOs. That's what we're talking about here. Okay. So the first thing you'd want to do is you'd want to get your contact list and rate them A, B, or C, and maybe define what is an A, what is it B and what is a C, let me just say this, when I'm talking to my friend, Mike, Mike Resnick here, you know, I don't have to really pull too many punches. I mean, I can show up with a list of people, I want to meet lawyers that he knows, and he could show up with a list of people he wants to meet, and we can talk about it. So you know, he would be in a in the sense that we have a very good relationship. And I think he knows a lot of people. And that could be something, you know, someone else, it might be more of a B and someone else, it might be more of a seat. And so I'm going to write different scripts, or I'm gonna have different approaches for those different level of contacts. So again, this is just an example of a part of a plan that may or may not be something you want to do. But you know, this is something I you know, I teach most of my clients to do and work with them on, then it might be Alright, so now I've got this great list of A's, B's and C's, what am I going to do with them? Okay, so now I've got to reach out to two A's and to beat two B's each week, right? So I've got to have different scripts may be created, I've got to have some time scheduled in my calendar, how am I going to be assured that this is going to happen, we got to make it into a habit. And then I'm going to track all that through a CRM, again, a client relationship management tool for lawyers, it could be interaction, it could be if you use Google, they've got one called streak. There's a bunch out there pipe drive, etc. Or you could just be a basic Excel spreadsheet, you know, that has a list of your clients, contacts. And then it's got, you know, who you've called, left a message, emailed, followed up. And then for I'm going to have this list completed by May 15. And I'm going to start sending emails right after that that happens. So it isn't just about creating a list. It's about taking action. And it's about following through. As you can see, there's only four tactics here. A typical strategy should have somewhere between, let's say, seven and 10. So again, I'll send you that more evolved sample plan after our presentation today. Jack, you've been in the program for a few months now. Do you have anything to add? I know you took this planning process very seriously.
Jack 29:32
Oh, sure. So I'm a little bit different to that I'm at a full service firm, but I think that a lot of the lessons for solos because of how my practice has developed, apply to me and so I think it's important to learn the lessons and solos and bring them over to my full service practice. But specifically to Steve's point, I spent a lot of time thinking methodically about every single thing I would have to do before the next step and mapping it out and really thinking you know, not just, you know, do the laundry, but put the Laundry in the basket, take it downstairs, put it in the, in the laundry machine, figure out how much you have to the timing for it. And to those on the on the call, you can tell that based on the fact that I refer to it as a laundry machine. I don't do the laundry that often. But that was the thing be methodical.
Steve Fretzin 30:17
That you didn't mention he didn't mention separating the lights from the dark. So I don't know.
Unknown Speaker 30:21
Well, my wife knows I don't do that I just throw it all in one big bath. So maybe I need to put together a GPS for doing the laundry. But the concept was, think of everything, do it in a deliberate way. methodically, all the different steps you need to get done in a lot of times, we're making assumptions. We're saying, okay, I want to get on the call with someone and tell them about why they should hire me. But we're making assumptions of how do we even figure out when to call them? When do we schedule it for how do we reach out to them? What do we say to them to get them on the phone, and then figure out all these assumptions you're making right out, write everything out and come up with a plan. And I just executed the great skills and the great lessons that Steve had. So Steve's the expert.
Steve Fretzin 30:59
All right, well, I appreciate that. And again, jack with one of the best plans I think I've seen in you know, 15 years I've been doing this, so I thought it'd be good to call on him. And it was. So again, this is something that you guys should all be thinking about and doing as opposed to winging it, which I have yet to see someone do do that and have as much success as planning. I'm not suggesting you can't wing it and be successful. A lot of people get by that way. But if you put some thought into it in some real execution, it's amazing what can happen when when that goes down. So and I think someone may have had a question, but it flashed, oh, there it is. Let me see. Oh, here's a chat. Let's see. Okay. Another idea here, that someone just suggested, I think is a great idea is if you if you don't have a coach or a mentor, to maybe think about getting a an accountability partner. And Thanks, Mike, for sharing. This is someone that you can partner with that says, Look, I'm going to hold you accountable to these goals and the things you've written, you're going to hold me accountable. And we're going to talk every week, and really try to focus on making sure that this all gets done, and no one slips through, I think, you know, whether, you know, we're all kind of at home gaining one if you guys are getting weighed up, put on a couple pounds. But you know, I'm not having that, you know, playing tennis or platform tennis anymore. I mean, I'm taking walks and riding my bike, but you know, it's in April, and it's snowing. So go figure here in Chicago, the idea that you know, you have someone that can hold you accountable that works with you know, whether it's working out whether it's playing a sport or whether it's business. So I love that that love that concept. Okay, moving right along. Let's talk for a moment about what's changed in legal marketplace. And clearly top of the list is this Coronavirus situation, stay at home, you know, everything is sort of up for grabs and sort of changing day by day. So it's really important to think about your area of practice, as you're going solo, whether you're you are or not, you know, you still have to think about these things and understand how it's going to impact your specific practice area practice areas, and might have to make some changes. Certainly looking at the Internet differently, how we're leveraging it for social media, how we're trying to build our brands, how we're connecting with people, I'm doing a lot of zoom meetings, as opposed to coffee meetings, those are working out really well. Thinking about AI, how can you leverage, you know, artificial intelligence and things for your benefit? And how is it also potentially hurting the area of practice? You know, for example, if you're in real estate, residential, you know, ai could be the greatest thing right now, but in a year or two, you know, they might change something and make something automated, that was your kind of your job. And then you know, that could change that could that could be a hazard. Looking at competition, what's the competition doing now? versus six months ago, three months ago? How specialized are you? And how specialized Do you need to go? And how is advertising and marketing changed? I know for me, I went from doing say, three social media posts a week to doing five, I'm ramping up my newsletter to do that more, I'm doing a drip campaign after my newsletter goes out to make sure that people that opened certain things in my email, get a next step, they get a next opportunity to engage me or engage in my content. So things are changing, and we need to evolve with them. And it's important to, to consider that as you go. And this is also important. And again, for solos, I think you know this, you know, your book size determines success, freedom and sustainability. If you're on your own, you know, you've got to have the business. If you're at a law firm you can possibly get by for years with just doing everyone else's work that doesn't play out in a solo practice. So you really need to make sure that you're, you're focused with the plan and how you execute every single day to make business development and marketing. You know, kind of the most important thing that you're doing next to just doing you know, great law, a great lawyer and you know, type work, really important. A couple other thoughts about competing right now. It's really under important to know, the pros and cons in your space, researching your space, looking at industry trends, okay, again, talking to your clients, as I mentioned earlier, it's a great way to understand what's going on with them right now, just for me, you know, working with lawyers, I'm talking to recruiting lawyers, we're, you know, lawyers that do recruiting all the time. And I'm trying to understand what they know what they're going through, what they're seeing is happening. I'm talking to my friend Tom, who's in the PR space, and he's, you know, doing crisis management and things. And he's, he did a podcast with me recently, which was awesome. But you know, he's sending me articles constantly about, you know, day to day what's changing in the legal industry, okay, obviously, you got to leave your desk and talk with people. But in these days, it may be staying at your desk and talking with people. Either way, your level of activity will determine your level of success versus, you know, just cranking out work all day, or watching soap operas, it's not a good thing, looking at your personal brand, and what you can do to differentiate yourself. And now more than ever, you need to be seen. And you need to be recognized. And without having a really good differentiator, something unique that you're doing a new deliverable, a new angle, something that is going to separate you from the pack is really, really important. And again, going back to business development as a learned skill. Let's talk about what differentiates in the marketplace and how to develop a differentiator. So right now, you're saying, Well, you know, I do estate planning law. Okay. So how many estate planning lawyers are there in Chicago land, for example? And, you know, how are you differentiating? And well, you're not. So let's look at how to do that. Number one, what do you do better than anyone else? What awards? Have you been given? What do you find you're able to do more efficiently than others? These are important things to consider. What do your clients say about you? If you don't know? And then I would recommend talking to three or four your clients and maybe having a few questions. And one of them might be, you know, why did you hire me? or What did you you know, what did you like about the experience working with me? And what did you feel is maybe different about your experience working with me than other lawyers that you maybe have engaged with, they might say nothing. And that could be very telling. Or they might say, here's what it is, you're the master at? Or you're incredibly responsive? Or you're you did things, you know, just just, you know, you set expectations better? Whatever. That's what you want to know. Okay. And then think about what no one else is saying in the marketplace. If there's a way for you to position yourself in a way that no one else is? Well, that can be really, really helpful. Okay. There's a book out there from 15 years ago called Blue Ocean Strategy, I don't know that you necessarily need to read it. But essentially, what it says is the sea is bloodied red with competition go where the blue ocean is. So again, if all of the estate planners are in the same ocean, or same part of the ocean, where can you flow out and go somewhere where there's lots of business? But maybe they haven't figured it out yet? Or they're not there yet? Okay. So again, it could be a piece of estate planning that people aren't focusing on that you are, could be, again, maybe the area that you're in, could be how you're getting to different people, getting creative around that and then tested tested, again, an interesting litmus test for those interested in in trying to figure out what a differentiator could be for you. Let's say you come up with an idea and you say, I provide great service. How does that sound as a differentiator? Right, I provide great service. So you can put it through a litmus test of two questions. The first question is, is what I just said, really different? meaning is no one else saying it? Right? And the answer is, yeah, everybody says they provide great service. So right off the bat, you can sort of take that idea, and you can throw it in the trashcan, saying that you provide great service. The old one that people used to say is I'm a big firm lawyer working at small firm rates. You know, I think that might still work with some people if they've never heard it before. But the reality is, it's been playing out for the last 12 years. And most people have heard it, and they're kind of over it already. They get it. So that may not be something that's unique, right? Because too many people are saying it. The other litmus test is Who cares? So you might have something that you think is really unique, but if no one cares about it, right? You know, I provide these great frets and pens that, you know, I hand off to people when I meet with them, Well, yeah, no one else is doing that. Because it's kind of stupid. And then second of all, you know, who cares about a stupid pen? Right. So we need to come up with something different. So for me, you know, I work exclusively with lawyers. Okay. So a, is that something different? Yeah, there's a handful of people that do this around the country, right, in the same space that I do. And by the way, does that matter to lawyers that I work exclusively with lawyers that I I know their space in and out and backwards and forwards that I've helped hundreds of lawyers? Yeah, I think so. I mean, that's really important. If I say I work in over 50 Industries, and I've worked with a few lawyers, that's not going to be very convincing for lawyers to hire me, in most cases. So you're going to want to think about a differentiator that passes those two limits. Test. I'll give you a quick example too. And then just so you know, we're coming up on our time. So if you have to bolt, I'm going to keep going, because I've got a few more slides, I will probably go till 10, if you can stay on great, but just want to let you know, if you have to pop off, I get it. So for one firm, there's labor employment in jack knows his firm laner mutual, they asked their clients what was important. And the client said, responsiveness, that's the most important thing to them, because they're dealing with employee issues. So laner mutant came up with their two hour return call guarantee. And they posted it everywhere. And they became quite famous in Chicago land for being this known as this very responsive law firm. Okay, now, you would say that's not who can do that two hour response time? Well, they figured out a way to do it, and they became famous for it. So again, who else in the marketplace is doing it? You know, the answer is no one. And is it important to the client? The answer is absolutely. So it passes. The two litmus test is a good example for how you want to make sure if you're going to come up with a differentiator that it works, okay. As far as where that differentiator can be used, it can be used in an elevator pitch, I do teach elevator, you know how to write an elevator pitch or infomercial. And so thinking about this, there's a couple of steps that I teach, again, I'm an estate planning attorney for you know, myself or, or I'm a state planning attorney here in Chicago. And that's all you say, I don't know if that's really drawing in someone who may need an estate plan. Okay. So again, explain who you are. And maybe you know what you do or begin with a short story, again, depending on the context of a one on one versus doing it as a beginning of, you know, presentation and on a panel, for example, step two, I suggest using what are called pain points. pain points are different than features and benefits. You know, you might say, I'm an estate planner, I do this, I do this, I do this, I do this, everybody's falling asleep or is looking at their phone, by the time you get done listing, listing out all the things that you do. pain points are different pain points are the things that you solve, these are the problems that your clients have that you solve. And by sharing those pain points, it might draw the listener in saying, Hey, I have those pain points, or I know someone that has those pain points, utilize the differentiator that you've created that we just talked about, to demonstrate that you've got a unique business proposition. And then lastly, if it's appropriate, you know, talk about what's the next step, what's the call to action, okay, might be setting up a 15 minute call, eventually, you might be meeting with somebody might be talking to him about, you know, their needs for an estate plan, etc. Okay, as an example, for this, this is just a small example, you know, Dan Henry, and heading up intellectual property, people usually come to me when a competitor accused them of patent or trademark infringement, which can handcuff their business and cost them 1000s, or sometimes millions. That's a good example of a pain point. I didn't say that I do. Or in this case, Dan Henry, doesn't say that he does just you know, he does, you know, patents and trademarks, and start listing off the different types. He's talking about the kinds of problems why people come to him, okay. And that's going to resonate with people more so than just listing off a bunch of things you do. Down below, it says, If you believe it says my clients love my proactive approach to protecting their intellectual property by asking the really tough questions. So in this instance, that's his differentiator is the ability to ask really good and tough questions. And that that's unique for him. That's what he heard from his, his clients. And so therefore, he's using that as his differentiator. And then the call to action, if you believe that you might be, you know, at risk with your intellectual property. Okay. So again, just one example of this, in my book, the networking Handbook, I think I give a few more. But that's just a quick example. And then I'm just talking a little bit about networking on LinkedIn, where to start, essentially, you know, do your research, I mean, I think you really need to understand who are you looking to talk to who are you looking to meet on LinkedIn? And that's going to impact how you use it. So asking around going online, checking out your competition, who are they connected? What are other successful lawyers in your space do and how are they who are they? What are they posting? How are they commenting? Who are they connecting with? Okay, this is the most important thing I'm going to share on this point is you have to know who you're targeting to meet and you should have three targets, prospective clients, so you might connect with GCS, you might connect with CEOs, you might connect with people that could be, you know, direct buyers for your legal services. Number two is strategic partner. So an estate planning attorney might connect with Wealth Advisors, right and estate planning attorney might connect with CPAs other people that might want to refer that estate planning attorney and then also thinking about centers of influence who are the shakers and movers that you should be connecting with a really no everybody. Okay, so those are kind of some thoughts there, following it up with networking on LinkedIn. Again, connecting with those targets, using your existing network. Those are The people that that you're already connected to, to get to other people, okay, looking for inside connections. So I looked through Jeremy's contacts, and I see that he knows to five or 10 lawyers, I can ask Jeremy for those introductions if I wanted to. Because that's an inside connection through LinkedIn. I mean, that's one of the beauties of LinkedIn is, you know, you can just just look through other people's contacts if they have an open account, and identify the people that you want to meet, and then go back to that individual and ask for help find that common ground. So again, it might be people that, you know, went to the same school that you went to, and you can connect with them, like I went to Illinois State. I'm connecting with a lot of lawyers that graduated from Illinois State. They're Redbirds, I'm a red bird. And they're very willing to connect with me on LinkedIn, once they've connected with me on LinkedIn, then I can start offering value. And that's selling to anybody on LinkedIn. But I am trying to offer a book I'm trying to offer an event I'm trying to offer some assistance, so that I can add value without saying it's directly related to hiring me. And I think that's a great way to start a relationship. Try to leverage your best relationships. So again, you know, trying to go through and look at your contacts, contacts. And then this is something a lot of people need to start doing that aren't. And that is to comment and share other people's posts. So if you have a GC, that could be a potential client for you, why not positively comment on that general counsel's posts, or their company's posts, share the post, again, if it's a good if it's a good post, if it's terrible, don't do it. But you can still, you know, like it or you could, you know, just just comment, you know, add your value. And they might appreciate that, and then it might be easier for them to want to connect with you. Okay, may not be a GC, maybe it's it's, again, a connector in the area could be someone that is a potential strategic partner. Okay. And then be sure to ask for the quality introduction. That's another point. So what's the difference between a referral and a quality introduction? If I said to Jeremy, hey, I've got somebody for you call Bob Smith. Here's his number. Well, that's kind of a warm, cold call. If Jeremy's looking for an introduction for me, he would want to come back to me and he'd want to ask me to make an introduction, a high level quality introduction, where I'm making sure that persons interested in talking with Jeremy are interested in talking and then make sure that it's it's mutually beneficial, and then moving forward through an email. Okay, so I think that's as far as I want to go today with this presentation, guys. We've covered a lot of ground including really thinking about what it takes to go solo from a planning perspective, getting your ducks in a row, it's important to have a marketing plan, a business plan a budget. And then it's also important to start taking action on that plan to start getting connected. Make sure you've got your plan, you've got your infomercial, like you're ready to go to you're ready to go to market. That's really an important factor there. Okay, so I just want to wrap things up by saying that if you have any questions, if you have some things that you need to get, you know, put together you know, feel free to give me a shout, I'm happy to talk my email is Steve it's frettin.com. And so you can reach me that way you can go through my website, whatever the case might be, like you guys ought to listen to my podcast be that lawyer I do have a Jeremy did an interview with me about going solo highly recommend you check out that podcast, just some additional tips and ideas from Jeremy who you know has been very successful at going solo. Well With that, I want to thank you for joining me. Hope you enjoyed my presentation today. Let's go solo and that you got some good takeaways and that you're one step closer to being that lawyer confident, organized and a skilled Rainmaker. Take it easy, be safe, and we'll talk again soon.
Narrator 48:52
Thanks for listening to be that lawyer, life changing strategies and resources for growing a successful law practice. Visit Steve's website Fretzin.com. For additional information, and to stay up to date on the latest legal business development and marketing trends. For more information and important links about today's episode, check out today's show notes.